The Nigerian telecommunications regulator, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has said that there is no deployment of 5G in Nigeria at the moment.
Reacting to statements making the rounds on social media that the Nigerian telecoms industry was going to switch on the Fifth Generation (5G) in Lagos on Sunday 10th May, Monday 11th and Tuesday 12th May 2020, the NCC said in a statement on Monday that these statements from faceless individuals or groups could not be further from the truth.
It explained that the NCC in November 2019 approved the trial test for 5G for a period of three months only and that the trial had been concluded and installation decommissioned.
The Executive Vice Chairman of the NCC, Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta, said that “the trial among others was to study and observe any health or security challenges the 5G network might present and that relevant stakeholders, including members of the security agencies were invited to participate during the trial.’’
He assured that the NCC would continue to maintain its policy of technology neutrality and encourage service providers to deploy the best technology that would meet the needs of the society in a secured and friendly manner.
According to him, the NCC has provided clarifications through frequently asked questions on 5G in view of the recent developments in which misleading materials with no proven evidence are being circulated to link CORONAVIRUS or COVID-19 with 5G technology and therefore refutes the claim that there will be switching on of 5G in Lagos in its entirety.
He also provided clarifications on the laying of fibre optic cables within Lagos and other parts of Nigeria to the effect that the laying of additional fibre optic cables was to strengthen the existing 3G and 4G infrastructure to provide robust and pervasive telecoms infrastructure to improve network performance.
“5G is a fifth generation of mobile technology, which is an improvement of today’s 4G technology with enhanced capabilities. 5G technology provides the platform for new and emerging technologies such as Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Big Data to improve the way we live and work.
“NCC has not issued any licence for 5G in Nigeria and therefore, the mobile network operators (MNOs) cannot switch on such technology. The NCC is technology-neutral. As such, we don’t license technology but assigns spectrum to operators for deployment of any service when allocated by National Frequency Management Council (NFMC),” Danbatta said.
GIK/APA